Israel´s enemies have increased their efforts to gather intelligence
on the IDF particularly by use of signal intelligence (SIGINT)
capabilities, a senior Military Intelligence officer warned on Monday.

The officer said that Israel’s adversaries were using technology
available on the civilian market for intelligence-gathering purposes.
The focus was on various military communication systems as well as
cyber space.

“We are seeing an improvement by the other side in its ability to
gather intelligence,” the officer said. “They can buy civilian
equipment to gather intelligence and there is also the ability of a
number of groups with varying capabilities to work against us.”

Due to the increase in the perceived threat, the IDF Information
Security Unit embarked Monday on a new campaign aimed at raising
awareness throughout the military and among reservists of the need to
protect information obtained in the military.

“The potential for information to leak from the IDF is increasing and
the challenge to safeguard a secret is greater,” the officer said,
noting for example the use of social media sites by soldiers and
reservists.

Access to the Internet, the officer said, poses a major challenge
since it enables soldiers to simply take information – even if not
maliciously – and to post it online. As an example, the officer
referred to a recent case when a soldier posted on his Facebook page
that his unit was planning an operation that night in a specific
Palestinian village in the West Bank. The IDF had to cancel the
operation.

The officer said that the Information Security Unit, a part of
Military Intelligence, frequently listened to conversations on
military networks and tracked email correspondence with non-military
elements to ensure that sensitive information does not leak.

He said that the unit recently appointed Information Security
officers to units – mostly in the field – which did not traditionally
have such an officer within its ranks. In other units, officers with
an existing job were trained to also be in charge of ensuring
information security within their bases.

Despite the increased threat, the officer said that the IDF was
planning to move forward with plans to replace all of the civilian
mobile phones in use by officers and career servicemen with smart
phones. Distribution of the new phones will begin in the coming weeks.